<div class="image-full-width">
<img src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources-10/fil-am-war-sm.webp" alt="Filipino soldiers in 1899"/>
<div>
(Filipino soldiers in 1899)
</div>
</div>
<p>
One lie that was told to us was that the conflict was an insurrection, meaning that legally, under the Treaty of Paris, our revolutionaries were mere rebels under a nation that had legitimate jurisdiction over them. Hence it was called "The Philippine Insurrection against the United States." But we already had a national revolutionary government since the beginning of the revolution in 1896, which was headed eventually by General Emilio Aguinaldo who proclaimed Philippine independence in 1898 on account of the many victories the revolutionaries were already gaining against the Spaniards. That conflict was a war between two independent sovereign nations.
</p>
<p>
Another lie would be that it was the Filipinos who started that war, that we were the first one to fire a shot against the Americans on the night of February 4, 1899. Hearing this disinformation in the middle of the debate in the US Congress to ratify the Treaty of Paris, the undecided swung towards the pro-imperialists and ratified the treaty. Turns out the first shot came from the side of the volunteers of the United States.
</p>


<p>
But before that important incident, it was made to appear that the Americans did not have any intention to occupy the Philippines.
</p>
<p>
Three important original primary documents recently surfaced at the Leon Gallery that showed the duplicity that characterized the Americans' dealings with the Philippine revolutionary government.
</p>
<p>
The first is a letter from the American General Wesley Merritt, general of the division of the Department of the Pacific and the 8th Army Corps, on August 20, 1898 (curiously written by various scribes in Spanish), addressed to "General en Jefe de las Fuerzas Filipinas" but signed by him, proposing that Manila and environs should be jointly placed under the jurisdiction of both the American and Filipino forces.
</p>
<p>
This was seven days after the mock Battle of Manila when the Americans took over Intramuros after a fake battle with the Spaniards and giving the impression of recognizing the Filipinos' revolutionary government, which at that time was trying to create a nation, the first time in 333 years that they could breathe the little air of freedom.
</p>
<p>
But a 22-page typewritten US Navy official report dated November 23, 1898, tells of the Americans' ship, Monadnock, reconnaissance of Filipino positions around Northern Luzon. This was happening even as the revolutionary government in Malolos had convened a Congress that was drafting the constitution that would create the "first constitutional democratic republic in Asia." Previously published by historian Gregorio Zaide in his Documentary Sources in Philippine History, the US Navy report assessed the intelligence and education of the native Filipinos, and analyzes relations between the rich and poor, the military towards the civil class, church influences, the popularity of the aspiration for independence, attitudes towards the US, and how well were the Filipinos prepared to wage war on them.
</p>


Historical lies about the Philippine-American War